Michigan, Arkansas, and now Texas :)

Well.... it has been a very interesting past few days, to say the least, and I will try to keep it simple, yet detailed enough so y'all know what's going on!!

Our game at the Western Michigan Whitecaps was interesting to say the least. We were supposed to do the game on July 2, 2008, but we got pounded with rain in which it flooded almost the entire outfield. We were able to re-schedule for the next day, which we are not obiligated to do via our contract, but we had an extra day. We re-scheduled our flights and our plans for heading to Arkansas, so we could stay and extra day in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Since we stayed in Grand Rapids for an extra day, we actually did a double header which was quite long. We arrived at the ballpark at 3:00pm for a 6:00pm start and we did not leave the ballpark until after midnight. In minor league baseball, a double header consists of two, seven inning games. The first game went to 8 innings and the second game of went to 12 innings.... Needless to say, we were all exhausted, and had to be up at 7:00am to drive to Chicago (a 3 hour drive) to catch our flight.

Our flight from Chicago to Atlanta went very smooth and we arrived without any problems. We did have a 2 1/2 hour lay-over in Atlanta, so we go to Gate D1A, which is a Delta flight going to Fayetteville. GREAT! We are here and ready to roll, let's play some cards. Now let me tell you that the screen never said what state we were going to, all it said was Fayetteville; and honestly, would you think that there was two or more Fayetteville's? Well there is!! We are literally 20 minutes from boarding our flight, in which we thought was going to Fayetteville, Arkansas, home of the Wal-Mart Headquarters and the home of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. We could not have been more wrong, because Delta airlines finally post that our scheduled flight is going to Fayetteville, North Carolina.... TOTALLY WRONG DIRECTION! And needless to say we do not have time to piss around. We realized this mistake at about 7pm and we are scheduled to be in Arkansas in 24 hours. Thank God we were able to retrieve our bags from the flight to North Carolina, and we decided we needed to drive because every airline sucks, and there was no guarantee that we were even going to be able to get on the flight tomorrow to Arkansas. So we rented two SUVs and drove the 12 hour drive from 9:30pm to 9:30am from Atlanta, Georgia, through Tennessee, across the Mississippi River, and through the entire state of Arkansas to arrive in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Needless to say, our show was great, the fans could not even tell that we all did not get but 4 hours of sleep, and the show must go on. In 34 years, Ted, the Chicken, has not missed a show, and we were not about to let a tradition be tarnished because of a 'little' mistake.

After our game at the NW Arkansas Naturals, we got a fairly goodnights sleep, and then flew from Fayetteville, Arkansas to Houston, Texas, then off the Amarillo, Texas, where the fans go insanely nuts for the Chicken. The Amarillo Dillas are a small, independant league team, in a somewhat poor area of Texas (that being Amarillo), but the fans are what makes this town so special. We did a cameo appearance at their Sunday game, which definitely helped boost their attendance for our show last night. The Dillas sell out ever night the Chicken is in town, and yesterday was no exception. They had a sell out crowd of 7,500+ people, and the great thing is, no ticket is over $6! Our game was a blast, we sold a record for our merchandise, and it was just a great experience, with a great staff, and it is kind of sad to be leaving, but I know that the next few stops, the South Bend Silver Hawks (which I will possibly see some family), the Indianapolis Indians, and then to Louisville, Kentucky for the Triple-A All Star Fan Fest and Game will be a BLAST!!!!

I will keep y'all updated as much as possible. I hope everybody had a great Fourth of July, and that you are all enjoying summer! God Bless and I will be posting again soon.